


I Will Not Bow to Such a One

by Himring



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anger, Angst, Double Drabble, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Isildur - Freeform, The One Ring - Freeform, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-10 22:20:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7010671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Himring/pseuds/Himring
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Unread, I guess, by any save Saruman and myself since the kings failed”.<br/>But what if Gandalf were wrong about who else had read Isildur’s scroll?</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Will Not Bow to Such a One

**Author's Note:**

> Also: warning for brief allusion to Denethor's canonical suicide.

It was in the early hours of the morning that Denethor found the scroll. Sleep had lost its attraction for the recent widower and so, each night, he had penetrated further into the depths of the Library, restlessly skimming, sorting, tidying…

Nothing here could hold his interest now. Nevertheless, he carefully unrolled the ancient scroll and read.

_…of all the works of Sauron the only fair…_

The scroll, released abruptly, snapped shut. Denethor sat, his heart filled with cold rage. Finduilas need not have died. She need not have lived out her life in fear of the shadow of Mordor.

 

Isildur…!

Denethor wanted to rush out and proclaim the shame of the man in the market-place, the revered ancestral hero who had set up his descendants to be relentlessly crushed under the heel of the enemy he had supposedly defeated. He wanted to rant and curse aloud.

He restrained himself with a deep shudder. Such behaviour was not worthy of a steward of the House of Anarion. Denethor would still do his duty, whoever might fail.

But years later, he spoke on his pyre:

_Even were his claim proved to me, still he comes but of the line of Isildur._

**Author's Note:**

> The quotations (including the title) are from the chapters “The Council of Elrond” and “The Pyre of Denethor”. I believe that Denethor on his pyre is meant to be rejecting the line of Isildur chiefly out of pride, but it had occurred to me that Denethor canonically had turned out to know more than Gandalf thought he did, so that could be the case in this instance, too--which is obviously not to say that he always took what he discovered the right way!
> 
> Written for the prompt "Library" for Tolkien Weekly on LiveJournal.


End file.
